‘Feel the Peel’ juice bar

September 25, 2019

macfarlanecreative

Developed by Italian studio Carlo Ratti Associati, and created for global energy company Eni, Feel the Peel is a prototype orange-squeezing machine that uses leftover orange peel to make disposable cups to drink the freshly-squeezed juice, is starting a tour of public places around Italy.

1,500 oranges sit atop a 3m tall circular dome. When a juice is ordered, the oranges slide down into the squeezer where they are cut and juiced, with the peel falling into the lower section.

The peels are dried, milled, and mixed with Polylactic Acid, becoming a bioplastic, which is melted into a filament that is used by a 3D printer incorporated into the machine. The cups can be used to drink the freshly-squeezed juice and then recycled.

“The principle of circularity is a must for today’s objects. Working with Eni, we tried to show circularity in a very tangible way, by developing a machine that helps us to understand how oranges can be used well beyond their juice. The next iterations of Feel the Peel might include new functions, such as printing fabric for clothing from orange peels.”

Carlo Ratti, founding partner at CRA and director of the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.